Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Using adjectives in simple sentence (Need です and い-form?)


I meet various sentences with adjectives, which version is correct?



この猫{ねこ}は黒{くろ}です。 (...kuro desu)


この猫は黒いです。


この猫は黒い。




Thanks a lot!



Answer




which version is correct?
この猫は黒です.
この猫は黒いです.
この猫は黒い.



All three are grammatically correct.
The 黒 in the 1st sentence is a noun, and the 2nd and 3rd are using an i-adjective 黒い. The です in the 2nd sentence is a polite suffix.




I meet various sentences with adjectives,



We have two kinds of adjectives, i-adjectives and na-adjectives, which basically function as a predicate this way:



この猫はかわいい。-- plain form
この猫はかわいいです。-- polite form
(かわいい = i-adjective)
この花はきれいだ。-- plain form
この花はきれいです。-- polite form

(きれい = na-adjective)





Note that Japanese words for colors, such as 黒, 赤, 緑, 紫, 黄色 etc. are nouns and can be followed by the copula だ / です, like this:



この猫は黒です。-- polite form
この猫は黒だ。-- plain form



The 6 colors 黒, 白, 赤, 青, 茶色, 黄色 have i-adjective alternatives 黒い, 白い, 赤い, 青い, 茶色い, 黄色い, which can be used this way:




この猫は黒いです。-- polite form
この猫は黒い。-- plain form



incorrect: ×「緑い(です)」 ×「灰色い(です)」




As a side note: Only a few words can fit in both 「~~だ/です」 and 「~~い(です)」:



やわらかだ/やわらかい
あたたかだ/あたたかい
[真]{ま}っ[白]{しろ}だ/真っ白い

[真]{ま}っ[黒]{くろ}だ/真っ黒い
四角だ/四角い
丸だ*/丸い (*丸 is a noun, not a na-adjective, so you can't say 丸な~~.)



For example, you can say:



このパンはやわらかいです。このパンはやわらかい。(やわらかい = i-adjective)
このパンはやわらかです。このパンはやわらかだ。(やわらか = na-adjective)



For more on this topic, see: i-adjectives used as na-adjectives: is there a difference? (e.g. 大きい versus 大きな)



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